Jerusalem

Google plans to launch its Street View mapping service in Israel on April 22, but the project is apparently already online.

According to Dutch blog Websonic (translated), Street View images are live in the capital city of Jerusalem, as well as in Haifa, Tel Aviv, Merhavia, Kfar Kama, Nahsholim, and Beersheba. The Street View above is of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, also known as the Western Wall, which is one of the city’s most popular and sacred tourist spots.

For those who live under a rock: Google Street View is a service highlighted in Google Maps and Google Earth that offers panoramic views of streets. It launched in 2007 in the United States and has expanded to many cities and rural areas worldwide. Street View in Israel is significant, because it is the first time Google has published street imagery online from any Middle Eastern country.

An image gallery is below.

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Google isn’t just about indexing new information.  Today, Google announced that they have indexed (and translated) the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Written between the third and first centuries BCE, the Dead Sea Scrolls include the oldest known biblical manuscripts in existence. In 68 BCE, they were hidden in 11 caves in the Judean desert on the shores of the Dead Sea to protect them from the approaching Roman armies. They weren’t discovered again until 1947, when a Bedouin shepherd threw a rock in a cave and realized something was inside. Since 1965, the scrolls have been on exhibit at the Shrine of the Book at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Among other topics, the scrolls offer critical insights into life and religion in ancient Jerusalem, including the birth of Christianity.

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